More glimpses of unfamiliar Japan

This is the second half of a post on the Oeyama dance as performed at last years matsuri up in Kanzui, The first half can be found her...

The next dance at last years all-night matsuri in Kanzui was Oeyama, a big production with an unusually large cast for a kagura dance so I...

So, it's about one-thirty in the morning and the sixth dance of the matsuri begins, Daikoku and Ebisu. There is not really a story, ...

Suzukayama is another hero versus demon piece based on a Noh drama. The hero is Sakanoue Tamuramaro who was given the title of shogun (ba...

Its just about midnight at the small shrine in the mountain settlement of Kanzui not far from my own village. The annual matsuri got under...

The third dance at Kanzui's annual all-night matsuri was the first theatrical piece of the evening, Yumi Hachiman. The dance is very com...

For various reasons I only managed to get to one matsuri this Autumn, so I thought I would post on each dance in a little more detail. The s...

October means matsuri, and matsuri means kagura!! usually by the middle of October I have been to half a dozen all-night matsuris, but this ...